History in Popular Culture: Visual Arts

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The 'nude project' of Korean actress Seung-yeon Lee

Early in 2004, Korean actress Lee Seung-yeon announced that she had posed for some nude photographs as a wartime 'comfort woman’ and that she planned for these photos to be available, for a fee, on the internet.  Lee argued that she did the photo shoot because she felt that the comfort women issue was constantly being forgotten and announced that much of the money earned through the project would go to help former comfort women.  The public reaction proved to be too much for Lee and soon the project was cancelled, forcing her to publicly apologize for the photo shoot.  Below are links to the short history of this event.

Portrayal of comfort women

Suspension of the project

Lee's Apology to the comfort women

The Proof of Memory Television Series

The Proof of Memory is a 29-episode television series broadcast on China's Central Television.  The series tells the tragic stories of Chinese captives and forced laborers in Japan during the war. It was filmed in both China and Japan, and the entire production took four years.

Since the first episode was broadcast on December 5, 2004, it has received overwhelming responses from viewers. According to the producer of the series, it will be shown on Japanese mainstream television stations sometime in the near future Japan.

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